Episode 35: Racism in BC Healthcare w/ Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond

Ahkameyimok Podcast with Perry Bellegarde

"I document one case, and it really hit me, in this report, where a First Nations mom and she's in the hospital, the obstetrician is attending to her and she's about to have her baby by C-Section. It's kind of a high risk pregnancy, she's been sick. And the anesthesiologist is really manhandling her and yelling at her. And she's like 'Hey, what are you doing?' And the anesthesiologist says this out loud for everybody there: 'People like her should be sterilised."

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, author of the investigation into Racism in BC Healthcare is our guest on the Ahkameyimok Podcast, discussing this recently released report:

https://engage.gov.bc.ca/govtogetherbc/impact/addressing-racism-in-b-c-health-care-results/

The report details hundreds of examples of racism, prejudice and profiling in the BC health care system, that resulted in poorer health outcomes for First Nations and other indigenous people. And it prompted this statement by British Columbia Health Minister, Adrian Dix:

“I want to make an unequivocal apology as the minister of health to those who have experienced racism in accessing health care services in British Columbia now and in the past."

In this discussion Turpel-Lafond describes the many kinds of racism faced by indigenous peoples, it's roots in segregated health care and colonialism, what can be done to change it and why her investigation was made possible by British Columbia's adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

Mary Ellen Turpel Lafond is a lawyer, law professor, retired Judge, the former child safety watchdog for the province of British Columbia and is a proud member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 6 Territory in Saskatchewan.